A few minutes ago I got an e-mail from Steve Balmer. Microsoft today announced the new name and new functionality of the new search engine. The new name is the sound I suppose I should hear when I find what I’m looking for. But I can’t help but thinking of old Christmas TV Specials with a large family drinking Florida Orange Juice and singing “White Christmas”.

I won’t outline the new features here, because I haven’t yet investigated them myself (to be honest. Actually, I’ve been using “Kumo” (the codename) automatically for awhile now. Microsoft employees are redirected to Kumo automatically whenever we opened up a Live Search while connected to the corporate network.)

You (and I) can learn more at the Bing Blog (say that pair of words several times out loud.. and then notice the stares of people around you. Good for a laugh.) or at the official press announcement.

Oh.. I should have warned you that the site goes live June 3, 2009. Check back then.

UPDATE: Until then, you can learn more at http://www.discoverbing.com/. They’ve got some videos there that walk you through what it is and some of the new functionality. Here’s the “Product Tour Video”…

So… Make it your default search. I dare you. Try it out. “Bing it.”

(“Bing it”? “Bing on it”? “Bing it on”? "Bing Cherries”?)

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What do you think? Like the name? Hate the name? (Personally I’m on the fence.) What about the promising new features? Come back after you’ve tried it and tell me what you think.

What do you think? Last week I attended a few presentations by both Citrix and VMware, and heard all about their respective VDI solutions. Citrix has always built amazing things and added pretty decent value on top of Microsoft platforms, and that platform is going to get oh-so-much-better with the addition of native VDI support in Windows Server 2008 R2.

In a very small nutshell, it is a way to grant access (either full or selective) to your corporate resources from outside. It’s a new capability that requires Windows Server 2008 R2 on the DirectAccess-supporting servers (though not on the servers that host the actual files or applications being accessed), and Windows 7 on the desktop client.

“You mean like VPN”?

Well.. yes and no. Like VPN, it’s a tunnel in from the outside. But unlike VPN, it’s always there and available. For me sitting at home or at an airport or some beloved coffee shop, I can work on my expense report as readily as surf the Internet. If I get an e-mail that contains a link to some sharepoint-homed document, I just open it up. It’s magic.

“Is it tough to set up?”

In a word: YES. It’s not a quick wizard set it all up. (HINT: How comfortable are you with IPv6?) It’s not just “a feature”, but rather “a solution”. Think of all the options and flexibility there are with something like Network Access Protection (NAP). There are several options and decisions to be made about how you roll this out. So.. a good step-by-step guide specifically geared toward trying this technology out is extremely useful.

“To avoid interruption, you’ll need to rebuild your test machine using a valid version of Windows before the software expires. Windows will notify you that the expiration process is beginning and two weeks later your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. The Beta expires on August 1, 2009, and bi-hourly shutdowns will begin July 1, 2009. The RC will expire June 1, 2010, and the bi-hourly shutdowns will begin on March 1, 2010. In both cases, you’ll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS and reinstall all your programs and data.”

So if you’re running the Windows 7 Beta, you will start seeing expiration notifications in Mid June. For the Windows 7 RC (build 7100) you will start seeing notifications about the expiration in February. The beta will cease to function on August 1, 2009, and the RC will die on June 1, 2010.

At TechEd 2009 this year in Los Angeles I was asked to help with "booth duty", which was a pleasure to do. One reason I agreed to do this was that I am passionate about the topic of the booth, which was for the sake of the IT Management Community Hub (http://www.technet.com/itmanagement).

Another reason was that I was able to visit with Evren Toktas. Evren is a Marketing Manager in the US BMO at Microsoft. She is also the driving force behind the community hub. So while we were there, I convinced her (no small feat) to allow me to record a quick interview, and to get her to walk us through some of the useful areas in the community hub.

As I’ve been telling my friends attending our TechNet Unleashed events, I’ve put a copy of the resource page that I give to them up on the web as well, so they don’t have to type in so many URLs. And also add items to the online version as I find them.

I hope you find them useful, no matter which of these unleashed events you attend.

(And CLICK HERE for a description of what topics we’re covering at these free events.)